Let’s talk about body consciousness. It’s nothing new. In fact, ever since William Bowerman published a four-page pamphlet entitled ‘Jogging’ in 1963, and arguably long before that, an ever-growing community has been timing their runs, checking their weight and counting their calories.
So what does all this have to do with behavioural bias software and the concerns of directors and senior managers of large financial services providers, who are frustrated that their customers do not feel heard and valued despite the huge volume of information and analysis on offer to them?
Draw up a chair …
Over the decades since jogging first emerged, vast industries have grown around health and fitness data. Now many tech companies produce items such as the FitBit or the Apple Watch that allow complex personal data to be efficiently gathered, collated, stored and analysed. For the wearer, the belief is that the data is a doorway to self awareness. And the more data, the greater the insight.
It’s a huge cultural phenomenon with a grand sounding title: “The Quantified Self”. As well as fitness, it encompasses other areas of well-being including sleep, nutrition and mental and emotional health, plus other aspects of self-knowledge.
Of course, there are concerns. Will employers push these methods on to employees and make it part of their work performance assessment, with possible ramifications in terms of insurance, drug and alcohol monitoring? What about the risk of access and manipulation by commercial, governmental, research and marketing agencies? (In my next post, I shall be talking more about the ethics of handling this sort of data and how we keep ethical considerations front and centre in designing our software).
However, notwithstanding the concerns, the Quantified Self a phenomenon that is here to stay. As well as tech products, we are seeing the rise of tech tools, which are provided free of charge to build customer engagement via self-knowledge- think the “rate your own driving” apps offered by car insurers.
Wi-Ai tools appeal to the same instinct as the Quantified Self. By helping the customers of investment providers to identify and understand their own biases, our technology enables you to have interactions with your customers in which they feel “seen” and valued, thus enhancing engagement.
As a parting thought: what has technology taught you about yourself which you might not otherwise have known?
For more information about Wi-Ai and engagement, get in touch at [email protected]